Lilly's Declassified Major Survival Guide

Upon my return from college in early May, I found myself bombarded with questions. Questions from family. Questions from friends. Questions from casual acquaintances.

“How was your first year?”

“How was your roommate?”

“What was your favorite part?”

“Did you like your professors?”

“Did you love it?”

“What classes did you take?”

Worst of all, the interrogation always seems to end with the dreaded, ‘So what are you majoring in?’ While I appreciate everyone’s curiosity in my life and future plans, I just do not know the answer.

Each time I explain my uncertainty, I find myself listening to someone’s nervous, automated response, “That’s okay! You have time and college is designed to help you figure it out! So many people end up changing their majors anyways.”

Now uncertainty has never been something that bothered me that much. I have never been one to plan things out I advance. I buy concert tickets just mere days before a show and I make plans with my friends the day of.  

However, uncertainty in what the rest of my life holds is downright intimidating. Especially when it seems like everyone around me knows what they want to do with their lives.

Since the first day of orientation, I’ve found myself drowning in a sea of self-assured voices informing the world of their pre-med, public policy, or biomedical engineering paths. So clear were their intentions and desires in choosing what subject they wanted to dedicate their lives to. Meanwhile I couldn’t make a decision on whether I should get white sheets or blue for my dorm room.

Now, a full year later, I find myself no closer to a resolution. I remain unsure of what my future holds while many of my peers continue to speed through requirements for their majors. My envious gaze follows them as they continue to become more and more confident in their future while I continue to go to my classes, finishing a couple of the requirements, and hoping that it will all add up to some sort of degree in the end.

I know eventually I will figure out my major, whether by force (I do have to declare by the end of this upcoming school year) or by my own sheer will. While I logically understand that I am not the only one who remains undecided, the voices of thousands of my peers who have it figured out fill my head rattling off their intended plans, pushing out the voices of my fellow undecided peers, eliminating any and all of my logic.

But, despite it all, I know that in the end, remaining in the “undecided” group is fine – even great. I will get to take classes and have opportunities that I wouldn’t have had if I had already chosen a major and remained laser focused on completing my requirements. Giving myself the freedom of choice by remaining undecided let me take one of my favorite classes in college yet, and it is even how I found and was able to join Coven.

And, hey, I am now certain that I have absolutely no interest in being a math major.

So, to all the people asking what my major is, I am proud to say that I am undecided. While the indecision can be stressful at times, it is this indecision allows me to have the freedom to figure myself out. Isn’t that what college is for?

By Lilly Delehanty

Duke Student, pink purveyor and resident expert on surviving and thriving.

Photography by Ariel Rissman

Barnard Student, coveted Covengirl and real-life fairy.